I love creating backgrounds out of smaller images. You can make some really different looks with them and stretch your stamps a little farther. For this card I used the small star from Smiling Snowflakes. Here is the background with no detail.

I used the Waves stencil to help create some flowing lines. I just traced some of the curves randomly with a pencil, removed the stencil and stamped my stars along the lines. I colored them with copics. This alone makes a beautiful background but I though a little more detail would help make it really pop!

In order to give the stars a little more weight I outlined them with a light blue green copic and then added a shadow with a slightly darker blue green. This is also a good way to mask any color boo boos. :) Another way to make the stars stand out is to re-trace them with a black pen. This makes a huge difference. You can use this if you had a stamp that didn't stamp well too. No one will ever know! I added a white dot to each star for a little eye catching highlight and dotted glitter among the stars too! I just love rainbows and glitter don't you?!

The sentiment was created heat embossing the large "You" from Whimsical Wheels and the "You are Awesome" from Friends in the woods. Since I wanted to use the larger you I just masked the smaller one when I inked up my stamp. Another way to stretch your stamps!! I decided to go with vellum because I didn't want to cover up too much of my background but still wanted the sentiment to stand out.

You can use an outline of light color to make your images stand out more and hid coloring boo boos

Use a black pen to fix ill stamped images or make your image really POP

White details can add that little extra something to make your card shine

If you do't want to cover up your background or want to stamp a black sentiment on top of black outline images consider using vellum.

Thanks so much for visiting! I hope you found something to inspire you!!